Question about HP Smart Array P410 controller

[jzukerman]

I picked up a used HP Proliant DL120 G7 server off eBay for really cheap, to use for personal hosting of some VMs. Nothing client facing or critical. The server came with one 300GB SAS 15k hdd and an HP Smart Array P410 controller without battery or memory module. That means I'm limited to RAID-0, RAID-1, or RAID 0+1. I purchased two more 300gb harddrives used off eBay. Those drives appear to work fine. I setup a RAID-1 array with a spare, and installed VMWare ESXi and that worked fine, so the RAID card appears to be good.

I just picked up a battery, the cable between battery and memory module, and 512MB memory module for the raid controller to allow for RAID-5 configurations. When I installed them and booted the server up, the controller fails to initialize and says self-test failed. If I remove just the battery, same issue. If I remove the memory module, it'll boot up but no RAID-5 option.

As I'm a Dell guy, this is unfamiliar territory for me. I looked up all manuals I could find. Lights on the battery show SYS and AUX lights on solid, and light #4 blinks 1 second on, 1 second off. RAID card lights are saying initializing array, and never change with the battery and memory module plugged in.

I would think the controller would boot with a bad or missing RAID battery, but throw warnings about this.

Did I get a bad memory module and battery?

Here's the relevant part numbers:
HP 512MB Battery Backed Write Cache & Battery RAID Kit 462975-001 462976-001
HP Smart Array P410 Controller (AS 013233-001 Rev AE, Firmware Ver 5.76)

 

[jzukerman]

Dug deeper. Looks like there is a firmware update that might fix this issue: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c03926856

 

[Moltuae]

I've been working on a few similar G6s and G7s recently. All of them have the P410i controller; I'm not entirely sure what the differences are between the P410 and the P410i, but I believe they both use the same battery. I spent a lot of time looking for batteries for those servers, since the batteries invariably seem to fail around 2 or 3 years old, so I can confirm you've got the right battery there since it's the same as the ones I bookmarked and purchased: http://partsurfer.hp.com/ShowPhoto.aspx?partnumber=462976-001

I would definitely recommend updating the BIOS and all firmware on these older HP servers before you start; there's numerous fixes for later OSes. I would also log into the iLO LOM and check for any additional info in there.

Also, can I ask why you want to use RAID 5 anyway? Personally I'd stick to RAID 10 (1+0) for servers, NAS, etc.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I'm not entirely sure what the differences are between the P410 and the P410i, c.

I think the "i" was for integrated. (onboard, vs PCIe card).

Yeah that 410 controller was put in a lot of servers in those times, as much as I love HPs SmartArray controllers, the 410 series wasn't that good...performance wasn't too great, and it just seemed a bit crippled in features that HPs controllers usually always did well.

 

[Moltuae]

I think the "i" was for integrated. (onboard, vs PCIe card).

Ah!, yes, that would make sense!

 

[jzukerman]

I've been working on a few similar G6s and G7s recently. All of them have the P410i controller; I'm not entirely sure what the differences are between the P410 and the P410i, but I believe they both use the same battery. I spent a lot of time looking for batteries for those servers, since the batteries invariably seem to fail around 2 or 3 years old, so I can confirm you've got the right battery there since it's the same as the ones I bookmarked and purchased: http://partsurfer.hp.com/ShowPhoto.aspx?partnumber=462976-001

I would definitely recommend updating the BIOS and all firmware on these older HP servers before you start; there's numerous fixes for later OSes. I would also log into the iLO LOM and check for any additional info in there.

Also, can I ask why you want to use RAID 5 anyway? Personally I'd stick to RAID 10 (1+0) for servers, NAS, etc.

Last night I downloaded the HP Service Pack ISO and made a bootable USB key. Then let it do its magic and it updated everything (BIOS, iLO, and most importantly Smart Array Controller firmware). It still doesn't boot with the memory module installed and battery installed. I left the server plugged in overnight, thinking maybe the battery needs to be charged, but no dice. I logged into iLO but nothing jumps out as an issue.

The error message is 1783-Drive Controller Failure, Self Test Failed.

Was going to do RAID-5 for a little bit of performance increase over just RAID-1. But seeing how I can't get the memory module or battery working, I guess RAID-0+1 it is. I'll have to get another drive for the server. :-/

As a side note, when I purchased the server, when I first plugged it in and booted it, it came up to a working Server 2008 R2 OS. I thought maybe the eBay seller had installed a temp OS to test. Nope, full production OS for a golf course in southern Florida, complete with LoB apps still installed, including a credit card processing app and some other apps I didn't recognize. Scary.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Was going to do RAID-5 for a little bit of performance increase over just RAID-1. But seeing how I can't get the memory module or battery working, I guess RAID-0+1 it is. I'll have to get another drive for the server. :-/

As a side note, when I purchased the server, when I first plugged it in and booted it, it came up to a working Server 2008 R2 OS. I thought maybe the eBay seller had installed a temp OS to test. Nope, full production OS for a golf course in southern Florida, complete with LoB apps still installed, including a credit card processing app and some other apps I didn't recognize. Scary.

You have to look at the typical disk usage (I/O) of what will be on the volume. While RAID 5 can have higher "read" performance over RAID 1...its "write" performance is slower. Adding more and more disks...like 4 or 5 or 6 disks...can help increase the read more, and lessen the hit of write. And lessen the slow performance of a volume rebuild after replacing a tanked drive.

Re: the contents of that server...seriously...SERIOUSLY...I would contact the golf club..make sure you get to an office manager...and let them know what you found. This is serious stuff. Perhaps the staff at the club didn't know any better...and they "disposed" of it in the cheapest manner they could. Or maybe they had a cheap IT guy who said he would take care of it for them..and this pizza tech quickly resold it to a server chop shop. In which case I'd feel good about notifying this golf club and seeing them go after the pizza tech...gotta stamp out those turds.

 

[Moltuae]

It still doesn't boot with the memory module installed and battery installed. I left the server plugged in overnight, thinking maybe the battery needs to be charged, but no dice. I logged into iLO but nothing jumps out as an issue.

The error message is 1783-Drive Controller Failure, Self Test Failed.

There's usually some note/message in iLO if it's just that the battery needs charging, something to the effect that cache is disabled and will be automatically enabled once the battery is charged.

My guess would be a faulty controller.

 

[jzukerman]

Works fine without the memory module and battery. Maybe the memory module and/or battery is bad. :/

 

[Moltuae]

Faulty cache memory I'd say, in that case. Usually, if you install the cache without the battery, you just get a warning (both at boot-up and in iLO) stating that the cache is disabled because the battery is missing/discharged. Good chance that the batteries aren't in great condition too though, if they're more than a few years old.

You can actually repair the battery modules, by replacing the batteries yourself:
http://opensource.wrenhill.com/?p=63

 

[jzukerman]

I got a replacement memory module (actually 2 since they were so cheap) off eBay and it works now.